how do I make a melody sound interesting?

[Jugo]

hello!

I make metal music and play keyboards myself, but I have this problem, I cant create melodies that would sound good, and I dont know what is wrong.. would really appreciate help
When I look at other songs/melodies, they just take simple melodies and make them sound awesome with simple chords.
lets take an example
https://soundcloud.com/assimilateofficial/mass-effect

this song has not too many chords, and the keys just play the pads and the lead synth that just plays the current chord arpeggio.

When I try to make something similar it just sounds really dull. And I dont know what the problem is, when I ask someone who is good at making music all I hear is 'well, I just hear the whole melody in my head first' somehow this doesn't apply to me, I can hear something in my head but then play it and it sounds like shit.

help would be really appreciated

[Touch The Universe]

Upload an example of your track?

[Tricky-Loops]

Maybe a good book can help?

"The Songwriter's Workshop: Melody" by Jimmy Kachulis

http://www.berkleepress.com/catalog/pro ... _id=190617

If it sounds dull, your chord voicing or layering might be the problem...

[Jugo]

example

https://soundcloud.com/viktoras-gre-ko/wip5

[Touch The Universe]

Not to bad, in fact i like your synth arp type sound better than the first sample you posted, but the guitar type sounds could be better with pitch bend and vibrato here and there like in the first sample..

[MadBrain]

Use motifs. They are good for making your melody both coherent (the repeated patterns are easy to hear and listeners love that) and varied (for instance starting the same motif but on another note of the scale, or with different chords, etc).

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOk8Tm815lE.

[Sendy]

Think like a musician. That sawtooth sound you're playing isn't a synth patch, it's a voice. What do voices do? They have lots of modulations, and they have unstable pitch, especially at the beginning of a note. Just a hint of pitchbend and vibrato, plus some dynamics such as volume swells, can turn pretty much any dull sequence of notes into an expressive melody. You just have to make it sing.

The lack of expressive pitchbending and other performance nuances, which can be hard to program in without actually playing them, are what make a lot of modern electronic music completely unengaging to me. I frequently find that some crusty old chiptune being crunched out on an ancient soundcard often has more life in it's melodies and intonation, because chip composers have to use these effects - they have no pretty sounds to fall back on, just crusty squarewaves.

[fmr]

I think Sendy has nailed it. When someone asks for a melody, they basically want something that can be sung or whistled, something that speaks to you musical emotions. So, if you want to create a melody, sing it to yourself. Then try to play it the way you sung it before. Try it harder, up to the point that you feel you are singing with the instrument. When you reach the point when your instrument sings the way you sung before, you created your melody.

[coskivst]

I find that good melodies don't just have catchy variations in pitch, but great rhythms as well. Sometimes the best melodies have a very simple repetitive rhythm structure - that repetition gets a melody stuck in someone's heads and makes it easy to sing.

[arkmabat]

You can throw something like mwobbler on it for a varied sound, I like what you've recorded though. It sounds great.

[GeckoYamori]

Syncopate a lot. And also decide where your melody should "start". It doesn't always have to be right at the start of the bar.